TV Shows that you imagine were a nightmare behind the scenes

[confettiinmyhair]

I've just finished watching Idris Elba's Fight School on BBC's iplayer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/61079035

The premise of the show is Idris picking 8 wayward teens and twenty somethings and trying to teach them life lessons through boxing, something which helped Idris in his youth.

The show unravels about half way through where the contestants either get injured, can't be arsed or go awol. You can just imagine producer's scrambling around during the chaos. There are several off camera incidents which are acknowledged in the show, the worst of which sees one contestant assaulting a boxing coach over trying to get him to use a used gum shield.

You get the sense that Idris is genuinely passed off with how it all unfolds.

What other shows Reality TV or otherwise spring to mind as chaotic behind the scenes?

[A Hat Like That]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lads%27_Army

In one series, there's two brothers and they kick off up and down the first few days. I distinctly remember one of the brothers just vanishing.

More humorously, didn't Noel Edmonds kick off about some BBC rally car programme?

[oggyraiding]

Working on the live feed of Big Brother. When they're mentioning names or interesting things, and they put static over it so the viewer can't hear, it means multiple human beings would be working shifts round the clock, listening to every conversation and manually muting juicy bits. The thought of watching the non-edited Big Brother for 8 hours at a time would drive a sane man berserk.

[Brundle-Fly]

Rik Waller screwed up two of his reality show opportunities. This article is proper deso. Particularly, the last sentence.

https://www.kentlive.news/news/celebs-tv/pop-idol-exam-invigilator-what-6001847

[Replies From View]

There was one with a collection of children aged 7-13 dumped in some kind of compound without adults and told to survive.  I can't remember what it's called but JonTron did an episode about it.

[jamiefairlie]

Rik Waller screwed up two of his reality show opportunities. This article is proper deso. Particularly, the last sentence.

https://www.kentlive.news/news/celebs-tv/pop-idol-exam-invigilator-what-6001847

"Nowadays Rick, balding and a failed comedy writer, spends his time ranting on an online forum about an other failed comedy writer who, according to the baldies, has become a "bananacunt"

[Sebastian Cobb]

Brookside was all built in an actual housing estate largely because Phil Redmond wanted his own kingdom, I reckon that would've been a nightmare if you crossed him.

[MojoJojo]

Working on the live feed of Big Brother. When they're mentioning names or interesting things, and they put static over it so the viewer can't hear, it means multiple human beings would be working shifts round the clock, listening to every conversation and manually muting juicy bits. The thought of watching the non-edited Big Brother for 8 hours at a time would drive a sane man berserk.

I think one of the posters on here did that.

[studpuppet]

Jim'll Fix It

[Famous Mortimer]

I think one of the posters on here did that.

@Small Man Big Horse did something related to that for a bit?

[Sebastian Cobb]

Working on the live feed of Big Brother. When they're mentioning names or interesting things, and they put static over it so the viewer can't hear, it means multiple human beings would be working shifts round the clock, listening to every conversation and manually muting juicy bits. The thought of watching the non-edited Big Brother for 8 hours at a time would drive a sane man berserk.

Similarly broadcast techs often have shifts round the clock even if there's nothing really going on, just to fix things if something did happen. Which means some poor skeleton shift has to sit through the infomercials and quiz shit they put on after channels have closed-down for the night.

I'm sure some of them probably go to sleep.

[Small Man Big Horse]

@Small Man Big Horse did something related to that for a bit?

Yeah, for the first and second series of the main show, and the first celebrity series. There was a bit of variation as for 2-3 hours a day I'd be live logging (where you type up everything they say in script form) and hitting the mute button if anything libellous / too offensive was said, etc, then for about five hours a day I'd be vision mixing the internet streams (and again censoring them if need be*) and write up a synopsis of what had happened for the website. I absolutely loved it (though did go a bit mad when I pulled a 16 hour shift once when switching from day shift to night shift), it was hectic but really fun, and we were encouraged to help out testing potential tasks and often sat in for the gallery producer whenever they were called to the diary room.

That all said I'm glad I had full time employment elsewhere when the third series rolled around, I think listening to Jade all day long would have broken me.

*Which I fucked up once, and which meant if you were in Leicester Square one morning looking at the giant video feed we had playing there you'd have got to see Helen Adams completely naked.

[bgmnts]

In the same vein as the OP, presumably any combat sport tv show is going to be mayhem. One of the contestants on that UFC tough enough type shows ended up violently abusing the porn star Christy Mack and was a mentalist so can't imagine it was fun to work on that.

Anything involving Noel Edmonds or John Landis, and anything survival type. Imagine being the poor producer and/or camera man/woman having to sit there around pissed off natives and 6,000 species of animal that will kill you and eat you live on telly just to show them as proper survivalists.

[Glebe]

I imagine Knightmare could be a (k)nightmare behind the scenes.

"Come along team, stop squabbling!"

[Catalogue Trousers]

There was one with a collection of children aged 7-13 dumped in some kind of compound without adults and told to survive.  I can't remember what it's called but JonTron did an episode about it.

It's worse. There were two such shows. Cynical Reviews dissects both here.

[bobloblaw]

There was one with a collection of children aged 7-13 dumped in some kind of compound without adults and told to survive.  I can't remember what it's called but JonTron did an episode about it.

Boys & Girls Alone. Regular cuts to adults watching and commenting on their behaviour - presumably encouraged by compliance but neutering the Lord of the Flies concept. Not Love Productions' finest hour.

I'll throw another in: Benefits Street. So chaotic and with the producers facing such hostility that the second series was cut to a 'special'. Largely about how they couldn't make a series out of it.

One day Mitch Hurwitz will just say fuck it and publish a warts-and-all on the nightmare of making the Netflix series of Arrested - green-screening Portia, Tambor's behaviour towards Walter etc.

And how about Don't Scare The Hare? I bet that bunny's got some stories.

[Martin Van Buren Stan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lads%27_Army

In one series, there's two brothers and they kick off up and down the first few days. I distinctly remember one of the brothers just vanishing.

More humorously, didn't Noel Edmonds kick off about some BBC rally car programme?

I rewatched a bit of BLA recently. Really holds up and is very entertaining for some reason

[A Hat Like That]

Also,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eden_(2016_TV_series)

Watched the run of 5 episodes when they went mental and

4 men who have split off from the group (Jack, Titch, Steve, Glen), the 'Valley Boys', go on a meat only diet. This means slaughtering the livestock more often than before. One of the people trained for this is Robert, the vet. He is unhappy about the increased rate of slaughter, and leaves in December.

covers a whole lot of :(

[Brundle-Fly]

Surprised Top Of The Pops hasn't been mentioned yet.

[Kankurette]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel. Charisma Carpenter being sacked for getting pregnant springs to mind, not to mention that Whedon basically killed her character off out of spite, and one of the characters in Angel got killed off because his actor had drug problems (and is now dead).

[Alberon]

The first season of Star Trek TNG was absolutely bonkers behind the scenes.

Do try and find the documentary "Chaos on the Bridge". Covers this turmoil very well.

Basically, Gene Roddenberry was already ill when this started and on top of this had some quite strong ideas that would make drama on the show very difficult.

But the peak insanity was Roddenberry's attorney who started giving script notes and outright rewriting stories, claiming it was Roddenberry's ideas. He managed to get an office in the studio when he shouldn't even have been on the lot. It took a while to get rid of him.

[Famous Mortimer]

Basically, Gene Roddenberry was already ill when this started and on top of this had some quite strong ideas that would make drama on the show very difficult.

His big idea was that the conflict shouldn't be between crew members, but the whole crew against X, whatever it might be that week. I thought it was rather a good idea, honestly, and led to less of the soap opera-y bollocks that gradually poisons pretty much every show.

[mippy]

I get the impression the cast of Frasier are still great pals, aside from the one who was off his tits on coke for most of the filming.

(Not Moose, sadly..)

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

After Dark, the late night debate show where they sat famous people down and gave them loads of drink then they inevitably argued with each other.

[Kankurette]

It's worse. There were two such shows. Cynical Reviews dissects both here.

Who the actual fuck thought that was a good idea? Of course kids are going to be horrible little bastards and bully each other. They're kids.

[curiousoranges]

Rik Waller screwed up two of his reality show opportunities. This article is proper deso. Particularly, the last sentence.

https://www.kentlive.news/news/celebs-tv/pop-idol-exam-invigilator-what-6001847

Poor bastard. At least this thread will give him something to read when he Googles his name.

[badaids]

I bet TFI Friday was absolutely horrible to work on; horrible people beaking it up and acting the cunt during peal ladism.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I'd love to know what really went down behind the scenes of series one of the Doctor Who revival. It sounds chaotic.

Eccleston has never gone into specific detail, but nevertheless he's made it clear that he wasn't happy with the way the cast and crew were treated. There have been rumours of stunts going dangerously wrong, and people being made to work under generally unacceptable circumstances (*cough* Barrowman *cough*).

Eccleston has vowed never to work with RTD and co ever again. He always comes across as a decent, principled bloke, so I don't think this is a case of some prissy actor having a strop. He sounds genuinely troubled by the whole experience.

[Kankurette]

Didn't he have an eating disorder? I got the impression Barrowman being a sex pest is part of the reason why Eccleston left as well.

Re Buffy, apparently the bloke who played Xander kept turning up drunk as well.

[JamesTC]

His big idea was that the conflict shouldn't be between crew members, but the whole crew against X, whatever it might be that week. I thought it was rather a good idea, honestly, and led to less of the soap opera-y bollocks that gradually poisons pretty much every show.

Agree completely. Whilst they didn't stick to it dogmatically, the general ethos stuck around for most of Star Trek even as late as Enterprise and it served to split them apart from other TV.

Gene bought his own hype about the idealised future Star Trek supposedly portrayed but he broadly had good intentions with TNG when he wasn't taking way too much interest in the costume fittings.

But TNG is a good shout. Rick Berman was apparently not a nice person, and you've got to wonder why two young women chose to leave the core cast and one only decided to return after many of the people had left behind the scenes. I think there must be more to the story there. Certainly far more than Chaos on the Bridge portrays.